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10 October, 2011

runDisney Meet-Up & Eat-Up Recap

A week before the Wine & Dine Half Marathon, the Disney Parks Blog posted about a Meet-Up & Eat-Up the Friday before the race with training experts Jeff Galloway & Brooks Johnson as well as Disney chef Gary Jones. Unfortunately I wasn't one of the lucky 25 to be picked (I think runDisney might be sick of me showing my face everywhere, haha!) but I had 9 friends (yes 9 out of the 25!) that were picked to attend!

Danielle and Patrick were both generous enough to write a recap of their experiences for me (I swear I didn't bribe them with food and wine during the festival!). I thought it would be nice to include two views since they broke up the attendees into 2 running groups and Danielle and Patrick ran in separate groups. Other than the run though, all sessions were done together.

Hopefully I can merge both of their recaps seamlessly and don't confuse everyone with repetitive information.

Pre-Event:

~Danielle....
About a week before I was set to leave for Florida for the
Wine & Dine Half Marathon (my first race ever!) I was at work waiting for a
meeting to start and decided to check Facebook on my phone (shhh! Don’t tell!)
- there was a post from runDisney that said the first 25 people to
respond would be invited to a special Meet-Up and Eat-Up event the Friday
before the race…I quickly sent my e-mail and just a few hours later I
received a reply saying I was chosen to participate!

I’ll save everyone the story of my trip down to
Florida, but a broken down train and a missed flight later I eventually made it
to Orlando! {Not to mention she ran into me randomly on Disney's Magical Express! Talk about a small world!} On about 4 hours of sleep I got up and took a cab over to the
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex for the 7am meeting time for the event.

The Meet-Up:

Olympic Track and Field Coach, Brooks Johnson:

~Danielle...
Once everyone was there Bob Hitchcock, PR Manager for runDisney,
gave us a quick rundown of our schedule for the morning and then we all
got into golf carts and were
driven over to the track where we were met by our first guest speaker of
the
day, Olympic Track and Field Coach, Brooks Johnson.

Mr. Johnson handed
out a document called “The Need for Speed” and from there it was a
bit like a high school physics class! Inertia = Mass x Velocity and
Force
= Mass x Acceleration… I wasn’t too great at physics the
first time around, and I have to say as someone so new to running (I
just
started about 3 months ago) all I was worried about that weekend was
finishing 13.1 miles
without collapsing so this was all a bit beyond me at the moment. However, that being said, he was a great speaker, very
entertaining and
funny and I really did enjoy when he got us up and had us do a few
drills on
the track - he really did watch each person and give feedback on their
form!

Photo courtesy of Danielle

~Patrick...
Brooks has been coaching athletes for over 50 years and has coached an
athlete in every Olympics since 1968. This guy definitely knows running! He
started off by explaining some basic running principles. I won’t go into the details, but let’s just
say he threw in a few physics equations to explain how to run faster. It was a
little early for a physics lesson (7am!) but he used it to illustrate some
basic principles.

Photo courtesy of Patrick

After the quick physics lesson, we split up into smaller groups to get
some on track coaching. Brooks wanted to evaluate our running technique, so he
had us run 20 yards in a straight line. He used this exercise to illustrate the
importance of the arm swing. It acts as the “metronome” for running. The faster you swing your arms, the faster
you will run. Give it a try, you’ll definitely see what he means.

Also, the
length of the arm swing influences the length of your stride. The longer your arm swing, the longer your
stride. Putting these two concepts together really makes a difference. It feels
really strange at first but you get the hang of it quickly.

Brooks coaches track athletes, not long-distance runners and because of
that I did feel that most of what he demonstrated was geared towards
short-track running. However, one could
apply the lessons for the last mile of a marathon when you want to have that
last big kick to the finish line.

Photo courtesy of Danielle

2010 Wine & Dine Champions Melissa Wisner & Anton VanZyl:

~Patrick...
The next speakers were Anton Van Zyl and Melissa Wisner. Anton was the
2010 W&D men’s winner and Melissa was the women’s winner. (Anton also won
this year’s race) It was a short Q&A session where we got to ask questions
about race prep, the course, and running strategy.
Everyone in the group wanted to know about
proper eating in preparation for a night race. Melissa said that she will have
a big breakfast followed by a smaller meal around lunch time. She stops eating
at 4pm to make sure that she doesn’t have any issues during the race.

Photo courtesy of Patrick

~Danielle...

Melissa Wisner and Anton Van Zyl talked a bit about the
course
and the challenges of running a night race since it was something new to
most
people. I was a bit surprised when they talked about the number of
hills on the course, I was expecting a race in Florida to be pretty
flat, I hadn't realized we were going to have to run up the overpass
ramps!

Official runDisney Training Consultant, Jeff Galloway:

~Danielle...

Lastly we heard from the Official runDisney Training Consultant,
Jeff
Galloway, who I was really looking forward to meeting, I had read some
of his books and listened to a podcast he was featured on during my
training and I really liked his "you can do it" approach to running, it
was very motivating for a new runner looking to jump right in to doing a
half marathon. Jeff handed out a
document with articles on “Eating and Drinking BEFORE an Evening Event”
and “Recovering After a Night Race”. He talked a bit about
the information in the articles and did a bit of Q&A and then it was
time
to head off on a run!

Photo courtesy of Patrick

~Patrick...
After the Q&A with the winners from last year, Jeff Galloway was up next. Jeff spoke very briefly about his
run-walk-run method and how to prepare for a night race. We got the chance to
ask a few questions as a follow up.

Photo courtesy of Danielle

After Jeff finished, it was
on to the 2 mi training run led by Anton, Melissa, and Jeff. We were split into
two groups, those that wanted to run the entire 2 mi would be running with
Anton and Melissa. Those that wanted to do a run-walk-run would be in Jeff’s
group.

Run with Jeff Galloway:

~Danielle...

While I wasn’t planning on using the run-walk-run method for
the
half marathon the next day I decided to go with Jeff’s group – how often
is it you have the chance to run with a former Olympian!

The
run was a 2 mile loop through the grounds of the Wide World of Sports,
Jeff
kept a very comfortable pace and the whole group stayed together and
chatted
the entire time. Jeff was extremely personable, answered everyone’s
questions and really made the run a great experience - I was just glad I
brought two pairs of sneakers to Florida with me, it was a trail run
and the pair I had on was all wet and sandy by the end!

Photo courtesy of Danielle

Run with 2010 Winners Anton & Melissa:

~Patrick...
I decided I wanted to run with Anton and Melissa, so I joined their
running group. After splitting up into our respective groups, we were off. The
run was on a “trail” through the grass/wooded area around Wide World of Sports. It was a nice
change from running on pavement, but at that early hour, the grass was still damp.
By the end of the run, my shoes were pretty wet.

During the first mile of the run, I got a chance to talk to Anton. He
was a very friendly guy who was willing to answer any questions we had. I asked
him about fueling during a run. To my surprise, he suggested that Coke can be
used as a sports drink. He said that many elite runners use flat coke that’s
watered down. I don’t think I’ll be trying that anytime soon, but for those adventurous
types, give it a try and let me know how it goes.

For the second mile, I ran with Melissa. She is currently living in the
DC area and we discussed the Marine Corp marathon since I’ll be running it at
the end of October. Unfortunately she isn’t running it this year, but she has
in the past. She said that it was a great race and that every runner should do
it at least once in their life. I’m definitely glad I decided to sign up.

Eat-Up:

~Patrick...
Once everyone finished the run and hydrated, we headed over to a
cooking demonstration given by Disney Chef Gary Jones. Chef Gary is quite
active and competes in triathlons, so he prepared a breakfast dish that was
good for athletes. It was a quinoa dish with fresh fruit added in. He had a
couple of attendees help him prepare the dish and hand out samples.

Photo courtesy of Patrick

~Danielle...

After the run we were taken inside the Wide World of Sports
and were met by Disney Chef Gary Jones and the one and only Mickey Mouse
(all
ready to make us a post-run snack in his Chef’s outfit!). Chef
Jones gave some great nutritional tips and then
(with
the assistance of two of the participants and Mickey!) made us Quinoa
Birchermuesli (a Swiss Cereal with South American grain), something he
said he
has for breakfast often before he works out (I’ve included the recipe
below).

I love oatmeal and this Quinoa had a very similar texture (in
fact you can substitute oatmeal for the quinoa if you want) and had
nuts, fresh and dried fruit in it. It was substantial because of
everything that was in it and will definitely make a great pre or post
run snack - definitely something I'll make at home!

Photo courtesy of Danielle

QUINOA BIRCHERMUESLI RECIPE

4 cups cooked Quinoa (you can also use oatmeal)

1pt skim milk

1 cup plain low fat yogurt

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 apples shredded

1 pear shredded

1/2 cup brown sugar

You
basically just mix all the ingredients to taste! It is a very flexible
recipe you can substitute the walnuts, apples, pears and cranberries
for any nuts, fresh or dried fruit of your choice! Same with the
yogurt, milk - feel free to substitute skim, soy, lactaid or a flavored
yogurt!

Photo courtesy of Patrick

Post Eats:

~Danielle...

After our quick
snack we were given goody bags which had a t-shirt and a small ESPN Wide
World of Sports backpack and then we had a chance to pick up our race
packets and check out the expo before they opened the doors to the
public.

~Patrick...
After the cooking demo, we
all got a chance to take pictures with Mickey and Jeff. We also received our
goody bags which included a personalized shirt. Nice touch! Since many of us were running in the either the 5k or half marathon the
next day, we got a chance to go down to the expo for shopping and packet pickup
before the official opening. After
picking up our bibs, we were free to roam the expo.

Overall:

~Patrick...

This was my second runDisney meetup (I attended the DL meetup) and I
have to say that the runDisney folks keep improving each time. There was a lot
of good info for runners during the 3 hour session and everyone had a great
time.
I’m definitely looking forward to the next one!

~Danielle...

Especially as someone participating in
their first race it was really exciting and interesting to be a part of
the Meet Up, I learned some great tips and met some really great
people. The entire event was well organized
by the runDisney staff and the opportunity to be a part of it really
did add something special to my first race experience, hopefully I'll
get the chance to participate in another in the future!

Photo courtesy of Danielle

Photo courtesy of Danielle

~~~~

Thank you Danielle and Patrick!! First drink after the marathon in January is on me. :)

Sounds like it was definitely an
amazing event and each runDisney Meet-Up just seems to get better and
better.

runDisney also posted this awesome video recap about the meet-up and doesn't that guy Patrick at the very end look familiar? :)

(You can find Patrick on Twitter @InIronsPL. We're still trying to convince Danielle to sign up for an account!)